Food: what is the difference between salt and sodium on a label?

Ugo Pascolo 5:24 p.m., October 26, 2021

INTERVIEW

It's a phrase constantly hammered out: "Avoid eating too much fat, too sweet, too salty."

And for good reason, ingested in too large a quantity, salt has harmful effects on health.

WHO also recommends not to exceed 5 grams per day.

To achieve this, you might think that the easiest way is to take a look at the labels of the products that end up in our cart at the time of shopping.

And yet, we have to be careful.

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The difference between sodium and salt

At a time when more and more French people are careful about what they put on their plate, some manufacturers have found a way to make people believe that their products are less salty.

Instead of "salt", the label mentions "sodium".

And that changes everything, since sodium is only one component of salt, just like calcium or magnesium.

"There is a whole trap and I find that we must really make progress on this", confirms at the microphone of Europe 1 doctor Arnaud Cocaul, nutritionist in Paris.

"When you see 'sodium' written on a label, you actually have to multiply the amount indicated by 2.4 to get the true salt content" of the food in question.

And to still monitor his salt consumption once in the stove, the specialist calls in

to "rehabilitate all herbs and aromatics, such as pepper, sage, basil, turmeric or even ginger".

The opportunity to discover new flavors and be creative in the kitchen, without the deleterious effects of salt.